The Conservatives’ motion to remove House Speaker Greg Fergus from his role over partisan language used in an ad for one of his events was voted down on Tuesday, thanks to the NDP.
Critics called the use of Fergus’s language in a promotional ad for an event his local riding an inflammatory display of political bias.
“House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus has once again shown his disregard for the neutrality required in his role,” said Conservative MP Chris Warkentin said in a statement last week.
Fergus was elected as a Liberal MP, representing the riding of Hull—Aylmer in Quebec and became Speaker of the House last October following Anthony Rota’s resignation.
An invitation for his event, called ‘A Summer Evening with the Honourable Greg Fergus,’ had partisan language.
“Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives propose reckless policies that would risk our health, safety and pocketbooks,” it said.
Warkentin moved a motion for a vote to have Fergus removed on Monday afternoon.
The Conservatives, who already had support from the Bloc Quebecois, sought support from the NDP in the motion to remove Fergus. However, it was voted down by all NDP members who voted.
“This speaker has demonstrated countless times that he is unfit to be a non-partisan speaker,” said Warkentin. “He’s a very, very effective partisan Liberal and … we’ve lost trust in his ability to govern this place.”
The Liberal party apologized to Fergus in a letter last week, taking responsibility for the language used on the event page, claiming that it was auto-populated and standardized party language.
“The Liberal Party of Canada unequivocally apologizes to you for this mistake and we take full responsibility,” read the letter, written by national director Azam Ishmael and posted to X. The apology letter has since been removed.
This is not the first time that the Conservatives have accused Fergus of Liberal bias since becoming speaker, a role which requires him to moderate debate in the House of Commons in a non-partisan manner.
Fergus removed Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre from the House of Commons last month after he refused to withdraw a claim that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was a “wacko.”
Poilievre’s comments followed Trudeau accusing the opposition leader of associating with far-right extremists and pandering to white nationalists to acquire votes.
Trudeau also went on to say that Poilievre was not fit to be prime minister without reprimand from Fergus.
“This speaker has shown that he has no intention of remaining non-partisan,” reads Warkentin’s statement. “The speaker has spoken at a cocktail fundraising dinner for a neighbouring Liberal, addressed the Ontario Liberal Party leadership convention in full speaker garb, and jetted off to Washington to make a speech about his days as a member of the Young Liberals.”
